ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A former U.S. Postal Service official has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for accepting at least $40,000 in bribes to help a Maryland company receive $6 million in contracts.

Forty-eight-year-old Gene Quarles of Spotsylvania pleaded guilty earlier this year in federal court in Alexandria to bribery of a public official. Prosecutors had sought a two-year sentence.

Court documents say the purchasing specialist regularly received payments between 2010 and 2012 from the owners of AH Computer Consulting, Inc. in Rockville, Md. On at least one occasion he received $3,500 cash in a brown paper bag.